The invention relates to a process and a measuring probe for the determination of ice or snow formation in outdoor installations, such as heated roof guttering and the like, as well as in refrigeration plants.
The invention is based on the object of designing a process and a measuring probe of the stated type such that an exact ice or snow indication can be achieved reliably.
This object is achieved according to the invention by providing a cold conductor connected to an electrical power supply and determining the heat abstraction occurring on the cold conductor, an increased heat abstraction being used as a signal for ice or snow formation.
By the heating capacity of the cold conductor dependent on the ambient temperature and by determining the heat abstraction taking place on the cold conductor, an ice or snow formation can be determined very accurately. If the cold conductor is surrounded by air, which conducts poorly, the heating capacity, or current consumption, is low. If there is water on the cold conductor, heat is admittedly abstracted more intensely from it, but this concerns only a limited amount of heat which is carried away by the cold conductor as the water layer is in turn surrounded by air. If, on the other hand, ice or snow forms on the cold conductor, heat is intensely abstracted from the latter. In this way, an ice formation is very exactly determinable. In addition, the cold conductor can have a very sturdy structure. It operates extremely reliably under the most varied of conditions.
Advantageous developments of the invention are specified in the following description and in the further claims.